Regular Brews:

1. Sometimes a cup of great coffee is worth a trip out of your way. I don’t really have any classes near Mann Library, but I’ll gladly make the trek up Tower Road if it means satisfying my caffeine craving. Enter Manndible Café, where you can pick up two of my favorite flavors of coffee on campus. Manndible doesn’t accept Big Red Bucks or Cornell Card, but you’ll be happy to shell out your hard earned cash for their Panama Hartmann Honey blend. This slightly syrupy coffee is the perfect pairing with breakfast, especially fruit and yogurt. Just don’t mess with perfection by adding a ton of sugar — Hartmann Honey is perfectly sweet just the way it is.

2. For those die-hard coffee drinkers who balk at flavored blends, have no fear: Manndible’s Piccolo Mondo brew is a cure-all for the inevitable mid-day exhaustion that warrants a coffee pick-me-up. And don’t worry about downing a few cups of this deep roast: Manndible offers a discount when you bring your own mug.

3. Walk a few steps from Mann and hit up Martha’s Café, where two more fantastic cups of coffee await. Martha’s gets bonus points for supporting local Ithaca Coffee Company, whose French Vanilla roast comes in at #3 on our list. This smooth, light coffee has none of the fake, overly saccharine notes that are typical of other vanilla coffees.

4. Ditto goes for Ithaca’s Hazelnut blend at Martha’s Café: It’s the perfect combination of nutty and sweet, and not at all overpowering.

5. When the late night study sessions have you tweaking for caffeine, the last thing you want to do is leave your dorm in search of coffee. When that coffee craving hits, you need it bad — and you need it now. Luckily, the West Campus dorms kindly stock their Pantry Rooms with Sun Coffee’s Sumatra blend. It’s nothing like the watery, flavorless coffee served in the dining halls — just dark, delicious and guaranteed to get you through cramming through a round of prelims.

Specialty Coffee Drinks:

6. If you are looking for a more extravagant treat instead of just the simple coffee blends, head back over to Manndible Café and try one of their espresso treats like the delectable Dragonfly: a vanilla peppermint latte. Though it is more expensive than your usual cup, this concoction provides you with the perfect way to indulge your cravings. The vanilla provides the sweetness to satisfy your sweet tooth, the espresso packs the punch you need to keep you going, and the peppermint is the mastermind behind the drink — especially as it gets colder outside.

7. It is an idea so simple that it never even occurred to me before walking into Collegetown Bagels. Hot chocolate + coffee … the conception does not require rocket science, but the end result is brilliantly delicious. Known as Cayuga Cocoa, this hot coffee drink is the perfect paradox of sweet and bitter that hits the spot. It is a great Friday late-night caffeinated treat to keep you going on a night out in college town after a long week of classes.

8. Continuing on our tour of interesting specialty coffee drinks, we head back to Manndible Café where you can find the Cricket — a cherry almond vanilla latte. You may wonder how so many flavors could possibly fit into one cup of coffee, and, well, apparently a lot because this drink challenges your taste buds by combining the fruity with the nutty with the sweet with the espresso … If you are up to trying something unconventional, but delicious for your midday refueling, once again, head on over to Mann Library.

9. During the random 80 degree bouts of bipolar Ithaca weather the last thing you want is a boiling hot cup of coffee. To remedy your withdrawal on these days stop by Carol’s Café in Balch Hall on North Campus to try the iced coffee. If you are not one for the standard coffee, cream and sugar, you can customize your cup by adding one of the dozen or so syrups to your drink. Syrups range from the standard vanilla, to marshmallow and to the delectable toffee nut. If you are feeling really creative you can even combine syrups to create new flavors such as the popular vanilla-hazelnut.

10. For another interesting coffee drink as an alternative to your everyday cup, head back down to CTB. Even though it may be out of the way for some students, their caffeinated concoctions definitely warrant a trip. Try the Chai Charger, a perfect choice for those who are lovers of both coffee and tea. The Chai Charger consists of Chai tea and espresso, so it truly succeeds in waking you up without boring your taste buds in the process.